Helen was said to be the most beautiful mortal women in all the world, so beatiful in fact, that a ten year war was fought over her. Originally, Paris, Prince of Troy, was promised Helen as a prize because he had chosen Aphrodite as the most beatiful of three godesses. The only problem with that though, was Helen was already married to Menelaus. He sailed to Troy in order to rescue Helen, which Paris of course refused seeing how he had fallen in love with her. Each Paris and Menelaus's countries soon became involved and thus the ten year war began.
Phidippides was a professinal runner in Athens, he was the inspiration for todays Marathons. At the start of the Persian war, the Athenians were greatly outnumbered, the Persians were launching an attack on Marathon and even with almost 1/2 the cities citizens, they were still outnumbered 2:1. They sent Phidippides to ask the Spartans for help, they were not able to help until the full moon for relegious reasons and sent Phidippides back to Marathon with the dissapointing news. The run from Marathon to Sparta was 140 miles, and extremely mountainous and rugged. Phidippides ran it, there and back, thats 280 miles! The Marathonians won their battle, but when the Persians surrendered, they simply left to attack Athens. Phidippides was called once again to run 26 miles to Athens and warn them of the Persians plan. Phidipides succeded and once the message was delivered, he dropped dead of exhaustion. In total, Phidippides ran 300 milesin one week. The Marathon event is held to commiserate his 26 mile run from Marathon to Athens in spite of his fatigue.
http://www.stanford.edu/~plomio/helen.html
Helen of Troy
Helen was said to be the most beautiful mortal women in all the world, so beatiful in fact, that a ten year war was fought over her. Originally, Paris, Prince of Troy, was promised Helen as a prize because he had chosen Aphrodite as the most beatiful of three godesses. The only problem with that though, was Helen was already married to Menelaus. He sailed to Troy in order to rescue Helen, which Paris of course refused seeing how he had fallen in love with her. Each Paris and Menelaus's countries soon became involved and thus the ten year war began.
Phidippides Role in Marathons of Today
Phidippides was a professinal runner in Athens, he was the inspiration for todays Marathons. At the start of the Persian war, the Athenians were greatly outnumbered, the Persians were launching an attack on Marathon and even with almost 1/2 the cities citizens, they were still outnumbered 2:1. They sent Phidippides to ask the Spartans for help, they were not able to help until the full moon for relegious reasons and sent Phidippides back to Marathon with the dissapointing news. The run from Marathon to Sparta was 140 miles, and extremely mountainous and rugged. Phidippides ran it, there and back, thats 280 miles! The Marathonians won their battle, but when the Persians surrendered, they simply left to attack Athens. Phidippides was called once again to run 26 miles to Athens and warn them of the Persians plan. Phidipides succeded and once the message was delivered, he dropped dead of exhaustion. In total, Phidippides ran 300 milesin one week. The Marathon event is held to commiserate his 26 mile run from Marathon to Athens in spite of his fatigue.